Boliden is in talks to buy Votorantim’s 64.7% controlling stake in zinc producer Nexa Resources, a deal flagged at about 7 billion reais ($1.4 billion) that would expand Boliden’s base metals portfolio into Brazil and Peru. Nexa operates five polymetallic mines, including Cerro Lindo in Peru, and three smelters, giving Boliden potential access to integrated zinc, lead and by-product capacity across two key Latin American jurisdictions. Nexa’s shares rose 2.8% in after-hours trading, valuing the company at roughly $1.8 billion, but both parties warn there is no certainty of completion.

BHP is seeking to restart the Cerro Colorado copper mine in Chile with a $1.5 billion plan centred on a new environmental permit and a 20‑year mine life. The proposal replaces contested groundwater use with leaching technologies supplied by treated wastewater pumped over more than 100 km from Alto Hospicio via a dedicated pipeline across the Atacama Desert. For engineers, the key issues will be permitting risk, long-distance water pipeline design in hyper‑arid terrain, and integration of seawater-desalination and wastewater streams into heap leach circuits.

Newcore Gold’s 80,000-metre diamond drill programme at the Nyam deposit, part of the Enchi project in Ghana, has returned above-reserve grades below existing pit shells, including 3.51 g/t gold over 21 metres from 245 metres (with 5.91 g/t over 9 metres) and 1.40 g/t over 21 metres from 317 metres. The project currently carries probable reserves of 51.3 million tonnes at 0.64 g/t (1.05 million oz.) within an indicated resource of 83.6 million tonnes at 0.56 g/t (1.5 million oz.). A new PFS, based on open-pit milling and CIL, outlines nine years at 104,000 oz./year (NPV US$496 million, IRR 37%), with analysts SCP and Haywood seeing scope for 130,000–140,000 oz./year if deeper high-grade ounces are drilled into the mine plan.